Intellectual property rights deserve the same protections as physical property rights, said an open letter to Congress from 67 advocacy groups, industry associations and scholars Monday. “We must ensure that American creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs are protected from theft to maintain international competitiveness in the digital economy,” Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform president, said in a blog post publicizing the letter. Representatives from the American Enterprise Institute, the Hudson Institute, the Institute for Policy Innovation, the International Center for Law and Economics and the National Small Business Association are among the letter’s signatories.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is expected to introduce patent reform legislation “very soon,” a House Judiciary aide said Friday. The legislation is a “top priority” for Goodlatte, who has been meeting with “all interested parties and stakeholders,” she said. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Tom Marino, R-Pa., is expected to be a co-sponsor of the bill, a spokesman said. The bill is expected to be “virtually the same” as the Innovation Act (HR-3309), which the House passed in December 2013, he said.

The Telecommunications Industry Association “urged” Congress in a news release Thursday to renew Trade Promotion Authority this year. The Software & Information Industry Association, meanwhile, said in a news release that it sent a letter that day to 18 House Democrats, requesting their support for President Barack Obama’s call for TPA. “With 75 percent of the overall market for telecommunications equipment and related services located outside of the United States, a robust trade policy agenda is critical to enhancing market access and avoiding trade restrictive policies in the global marketplace,” TIA said. “TPA renewal will send a strong signal to other negotiating parties on the priority the United States places on high-standard trade agreements that enhance trade liberalization and market access for U.S. industry.” TIA sent letters to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday, asking for TPA’s passage. “SIIA shares President Obama’s view that TPA is necessary to set trade rules that will benefit American workers and companies for years to come,” Mark MacCarthy, SIIA vice president-public policy, said in the release. “TPA would encourage modern trade agreements that recognize this vital need, and that are crucial to our business and economic competitiveness.”

More than 60 companies and organizations signed a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., Thursday, urging them to support an update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The ECPA Amendments Act would “provide stronger protection to sensitive personal and proprietary communications stored in ‘the cloud,'” said the letter. Signers included Amazon, Google, the Software & Information Industry Association, TechFreedom, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Yahoo. The legislation is expected to be introduced in the next few weeks and would require the government to obtain a warrant before requiring a service provider to “disclose the content of emails, texts or other private material stored by the service provider,” said the letter. It said the technology entities believe the requirement of a warrant grants “greater privacy protections” to the American public and creates a “more level playing field for technology.” The ECPA update didn't pass last Congress because authorities want to be able to access customer documents and communications without having to first get a warrant, said the letter. The organizations warned that by failing to pass the legislation again, Congress is sending a message that “privacy protections are lacking in law enforcement access to user information and that constitutional values are imperiled in a digital world.” ECPA update backers have called the initiative a multiyear effort (see 1407140033).

Patent protection was among issues raised at Wednesday's confirmation hearing for Michelle Lee as Patent and Trademark Office director and for Daniel Marti for White House intellectual property enforcement coordinator. This was the Senate Judiciary Committee's second hearing for the two nominees, who were questioned a few weeks ago in the last Congress and again this week to allow new legislators to ask nominees questions (see 1412100031). Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Coons, D-Del., said most politicians agree it is important that inventors can profit from their inventions and that trade secrets be protected. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked Lee how the PTO is adjusting following a 2014 Supreme Court ruling on infringement lawsuits. Lee said she was unable to respond because the agency is still examining the rulings.

The Immigration Innovation Act of 2015 “is really a plan to help supercharge American innovation and our economy, and we urge the Senate to pass this bill,” Andy Halataei, Information Technology Industry Council senior vice president, said in a statement. “Like it or not, the U.S. is on the wrong side of a brain drain in the heated race for highly-skilled minds to be competitive against other countries in the global economy,” he said. “If passed, this bill would help us to attract the best and brightest minds who want to bring their talents to our companies by using a market driven approach to match what our economy needs in terms of high skilled employees.” CEA used similar language in hailing the bill’s introduction (see 1501130044).

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., will reintroduce the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act (HR-4065) in this Congress, his spokeswoman told us. The bill would require smartphone manufacturers to include a kill switch on the device, and has become a source of debate at the state and federal levels over the past year. Serrano is still deciding when to reintroduce the legislation, the spokeswoman said. Serrano’s bill in the 113th Congress had 17 co-sponsors, all Democrats. It was referred to the Communications Subcommittee in February, but it never advanced.

CEA hails introduction of revived Senate legislation to reform immigration for the high-skilled, President Gary Shapiro said in a statement Tuesday. The Immigration Innovation (I-Squared) Act of 2015, introduced Tuesday by Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.; and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., “is a long overdue step toward addressing our nation’s shortage of high-skilled workers,” Shapiro said. “Not only does it increase the number of H-1B Visas, it also allows for an increase depending on the demands of the marketplace. The legislation also makes important upgrades to the student visa program and allows for the recapture of unused green cards.” Immigrants account for a quarter of technology startups and jobs created in the U.S., Shapiro said. “It is imperative that we encourage the best and brightest from around the world to stay here, instead of pushing them to the back of the line and incentivizing them to innovate and create jobs abroad.” There’s a real shot in the new Congress at enacting immigration reform for the high-skilled because President Barack Obama and Republicans and Democrats “agree on the parameters," Shapiro told us the morning after the Republicans’ sweep in the midterm elections (see [Ref:1411050022). "Everyone agrees we need highly skilled immigration reform," when 70 percent of those earning post-graduate engineering and math degrees are from foreign countries, "and we’re kicking them out," he said then. "It’s not the wisest policy."

Six new subcommittees, including the Information Technology Subcommittee, will be added to the House Oversight Committee in the next Congress, incoming committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said in a news release Wednesday. Rep.-elect Will Hurd, R-Texas, will chair the IT subcommittee, the release said. Hurd is a former Central Intelligence Agency official, according to his website. “Each of the incoming Chairs brings valuable knowledge and experience to the subcommittees they have been selected to lead and I am grateful for their commitment to bringing vigorous oversight to the federal government,” Chaffetz said in the release. The IT subcommittee will focus on “IT procurement, Cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, emerging technologies, and intellectual property, among other issues,” the release said.

President Barack Obama signed the E-Label Act into law Wednesday, the White House said. The bill (S-2583) will allow device manufacturers to include a required FCC label digitally rather than on the physical device. The House approved the act Nov. 13 (see 1411140031). The bill said U.S. manufacturers and consumers of FCC-licensed devices "would prefer to have the option to provide or receive important Commission labeling information digitally on the screen of the device" and such an option "would give flexibility to manufacturers in meeting labeling requirements." Within nine months, the FCC is required to "promulgate regulations or take other appropriate action, as necessary, to allow manufacturers of radiofrequency devices with display the option to use electronic labeling for the equipment" in place of affixing physical labels to the equipment, the bill said.